Hand to Hand
by Silver-Eyed-Rukia
Summary: It was something like an instinct, the simple knowledge that Annie was probably the only person present that could do more than make her break a sweat. It made her muscles harden in anticipation and her blood fill with adrenaline for the upcoming fight. (Two-Shot)


**Hand to Hand**

by

_Silver-Eyed Rukia_

**Rated:** T (for language and violence)

**Summary:** There is some sort of mutual attraction between the talented Mikasa Ackerman and the skilled Annie Leonhardt, based on the simple fact that one is the match for the other in terms of fighting. But is it just that or goes the attraction even beyond that?

**Pairing:** Mikasa x Annie (hinted)

**Note:** Please ignore any mistakes. Or point them out and correct me, whatever you prefer.

**Special thanks to:** ANBUShizuka for beta-reading this story.

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**Part 1 of 2**

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A small gust of wind swept through the slightly open window and into the wooden hut, blowing away some of the flowers that were scattered over the also wooden table that stood in the center of the room. A chair was pushed back and a raven-haired figure hopped off of it, gathering up the fallen flowers and some lose petals.

Mikasa smiled as she sat back down at the table, continuing her work on her flowery embroidery. Her father was currently preparing the meat for dinner while her mother was cleaning the dishes for said meal. Her blue eyes traveled over the mess on the table before they focused on the nearly finished work in her hands again. It was a "Welcome" sign for the door, her first very own creation after her mother that taught her how to properly work with the needle and yarn. As she was about to finish the sign she accidentally pricked herself with the needle with just enough pressure to draw blood. She stared at it, eyes slowly losing focus as the sight of the liquid seemed to bring back memories of something she couldn't quite remember.

But her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud. Mikasa looked at the door, eyeing her father who was putting away his knife to check what the sudden disturbance was about. Another thud resonated through the hut, followed by another, more powerful blow to the door. The blood ran down her finger, dripping off of it. The knocking had stopped and her father's hand was resting on the handle, nothing but silence now filling the small cabin. Blue eyes widened in sudden realization as the first drop of blood hit the floor and she shouted, but too late.

The door burst open, several shards of the door piercing her father's flesh, ripping open his body and cutting him into a gory mess of himself. Shadowy figures entered the cabin, their twisted, evil grins shocking the young child into complete submission. Something hot and wet hit her cheek and knocked her out of her frozen-like state. She turned her head, not even feeling the hand on her shoulder as her eyes locked with that of her mother's. Or at least with the place where her mother's eyes would've been.

A dark void stared into her soul, seemingly limitless amounts of blood dripping from the empty sockets and onto her face and clothes, soaking them. The inhumanly wide grin on her mother's face reminded her of something she couldn't put her finger on. The hand on her shoulder traveled over her neck and up to her cheeck, smearing the blood all over her face. The figures had already reached the table, surrounding her and her mother with their crushing presence. Their shadowy hands were clawing at her, trying to rip the very flesh off her body. She screamed, tried to, but a hand stopped her. The same hand that was now reaching out, hovering just above her chest.

"Make me whole again."

Unbearable pain shot through her chest as her rips were shattered, her flesh torn open and her heart brutally removed from her body.

And just like that, she woke up.

Mikasa sat up in an instant, trying to make out where she was. Her eyes caught sight of a window and several bunks containing just as much recruits as there were beds. Her heavy breathing cut through the silence that engulfed the dark but not completey lightless room. She looked to her right, staring at the lone candle that was barely illuminating the room she was in. A deep breath and a few seconds later she had calmed down, not even remembering what had woken her up. Not a second later though her sharp reflexes sped up her heartbeat yet again, even before the voice said anything.

"This is the third time this has happened in the past two weeks."

A rustling sound to her right confirmed her guess that it was no other than Annie that had spoken to her just now. Her bed was the one just beside that of Mikasa so it was no surprise that she was also the one to comment on her apparent unstable sleeping patterns. Out of habit Mikasa's hand moved up to pull the scarf Eren had given her over her mouth, but they found nothing. She then realized, that she had just woken up and that said scarf was resting just beside her pillow.

"As much as you act like you're in perfect control of everything your dreams are just proof that that's nothing but an illusion," the blonde girl said, also sitting up. Her azure eyes glittered in the orange glow of the candle, giving them an eerie touch of being able to see right through her. "An illusion you created to keep yourself sane from whatever happened when you were a child."

Mikasa didn't talk, didn't move. She just stared at the figure she could barely make out, her face expressionless. But she was anything but calm, because the words spoken to her were bringing back memories from her nightmare. Memories her subconciousness was trying to block out. So she did nothing but watch as Annie blinked once before shielding her eyes from the sun that had just risen over the horizon, indicating that it was time to get up for the morning assembly.

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The voices of several recruits were floating around the hall where they usually ate all their meals. They had just been dismissed from the assembly and morning practice and were now allowed to finally eat breakfast. Mikasa was seated just next to Eren who was happily munching away on his food, ignoring the bump that was starting to form on his head from the practice session. Armin was sitting in front of her, talking about some of the techniques they had learned the previous day. It was only Mikasa that was neither eating nor talking, the aftermath of her nightmare still clinging to her thoughts like a spreading disease.

She was uncomfortable about the fact that Annie seemed to wake up every time she had a dream like that. She never screamed or cried, but the tossing and turning in her sleep did nothing to keep her bed-neighbour asleep.

Dark blue eyes subconciously traveled over to the table where said person was sitting, silently eating her food while listening to Jean rant about something she couldn't make out from her position.

"I swear, if Annie didn't always sneak away during hand to hand combat I bet she'd get better scores," the green-eyed boy next to her muttered, rubbing the bump on his head. Another reminder that he still needed to practice more before he could take on either of his friends. Well, maybe except for Armin. The mention of the blonde girl's name caught Mikasa's attention and the looked at Eren, hiding her mouth behind her scarf.

"Maybe she doesn't feel like winning all the time. There is no one that can beat her in hand to hand combat," the blond boy interjected before taking a bite of his rather sad excuse of a breakfast. Eren nodded and looked at his neighbour's plate, eyeing the untouched piece of bread on Mikasa's tray.

"Say, are you gonna eat that?"

She shook her head no and handed it to Eren, who accepted it with a grin, before his smile faltered in realization.

"But of course!"

Several heads turned at the loud exclamation but their looks were ignored as the brown-haired boy turned to fully look at Mikasa, who was now wearing a look of slight confusion on her face.

"I bet you can beat her Mikasa! I mean, so far you've never been beaten before, not even when we were still small kids."

Armin frowned, deep in thought.

"Now that you mention it, you're right. Seeing that we are allowed to choose pairs Annie and Mikasa have never been teamed up before." His blue eyes locked with Mikasa's own, much darker ones. "Aren't you and her friends of sorts?"

She spoke with a soft yet determined voice as she answered her friend. "Annie is hard to approach, but we have talked before, yes." Her thoughts drifted back to earlier. Was it her imagination or had there been a hint of concern in the sky-blue eyes of the blonde girl? But her thoughts were yet again interupted as Eren slammed a hand down on the table, grinning.

"That's it! We need to pair up the two of them to see who would win in a fair fight." He grinned at his two best friends. "And I know of a chance to see that happening."

Mikasa blinked in surprise before smiling at Eren's sometimes childish antics. Again she looked over to the table a few feet away from her, still smiling. But that smile died on her lips when she caught sight of Annie's gaze meeting her own. Slightly embarrassed she hid behind her scarf yet again, looking out of the window. Little did she know, that a certain blonde someone was doing just about the same.

That chance that Eren had spoken of turned out to be a tournament for extra credit that the instructor had planned to get rid of the easygoing attitude of the cadets during the hand-to-hand combat training. After the last fight between Eren and Jean that the green-eyed boy won through superior combat knowledge everyone was eager to finally work to get the extra credits. The main reason though was because everyone wanted to be under the top 10 that were allowed to join the Military Police.

"Listen up!" a loud voice roared, carrying over to even the last one of the recruits on the training field. The instructor made a command to salute, a command everyone followed, before continuing with his explanation for the upcoming event. "I shall now explain the rules once, and only once, so every fucking idiot who doesn't get it right can go back to his shitty life before joining our ranks right now before making a fool out of himself."

His eyes that seemed to be unnaturally deep in his head stared down on the boys and girls beneath him, trying to crack them with nothing but his piercing gaze. Seeing that no one succumbed to his glare he continued.

"This tournament is based on the process of elimination. After you pick a name from the box right next to me you will find the partner with said name and challenge them to a fight. The winner then puts his name back into the box after pulling out a new one to face his next opponent. The sorry losers that some of you will be get to watch as the people that are better than they are will climb through the ranks until only two will be left standing. But only the winner of the final match will get the extra credit so don't think you can slack of once you've reached the final fight."

His eyes wandered over the crowd once more, happily noticing that now a few of the recruits were obviously in more distress than just a few moments before. Those boys and girls, he was sure, were going to be the ones that wouldn't make it to the graduation. They just lacked that specific spirit, the spirit of a true soldier.

"Now, everyone who didn't understand even these simple rules can pack his shit and leave to make it easier for all of us. The rest now goes to write down their names. Did I make myself clear?"

A loud chorus of "Yes, sir!" echoed through the open terrain, followed by a salute.

Boys and girls lined up in different queues to speed up the preperations. Seeing that there were more boys than girls though the females had a bit of freetime before the actual event began.

Mikasa was standing just a few feet away from the actual training field, eyeing the various girls that were now nervously wandering about all around her. She caught sight of Eren and Armin, the former of the two waving at her from inside the boy's queue. She gave a short wave at the enthusiastic grin he gave her and smiled. He was so eager to get some extra credit that it warmed her heart, the nightmare from a couple days ago all but forgotten.

As if on cue a blonde shock of hair entered her line of sight and Mikasa's body stiffened, a motion that was barely visible for anyone around her. But it still didn't go completely unnoticed as a pair of azure eyes pierced her for a mere second before focusing on the path before their owner again. It was something like an instinct, the simple knowledge that Annie was probably the only person present that could do more than make her break a sweat. It made her muscles harden in anticipation and her blood fill with adrenaline for the upcoming fight.

Deep blue eyes disappeared behind pale eyelids as the ravenhead blinked. It was as if she was actually looking _forward_ to fighting Annie. She shook her head, freeing her head of such thoughts. But unbeknownst to her thoughts of the same kind were currently running through the blonde girl's head, albeit for a whole other reason than hers. A reason that Mikasa did not yet know of...

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First of all I have no words to express how sorry I am for neglecting my fanfiction account for this long. I fear it's been like half a year or something. I am afraid to actually go and check for myself...anyways, I am back with a new fandom!

Shingeki no Kyojin. I watched the Anime in two days flat and I really liked it. And because me being me I can't resist the urge to pair up 2 female characters, even if they have like nothing to do with each other. So I apologize for the somewhat crack-pairing that is Mikasa x Annie, but seriously. Have you seen the fanart? There is SO MUCH FANART! And it's simply awesome. It's much better than other fanart I've seen from canon couples even. I also really hope that I managed to keep the characters in-character. I haven't tried my hands on SnK so far, so this is my first try. I don't want them to be too stoic. And I hope Eren isn't too cheerful. But his constant REVENGE is annoying after the 10th time, really...

**PLEASE! No spoilers.** I haven't read the manga yet.

**Phrase of the Day**

_I don't know what I've done, or if I like what I've become  
_

"Where I stood" by Missy Higgins

**If you liked it, please** **REVIEW**.

No flaming please.


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